The video for “Open Happiness,” the Coca-Cola-sponsored collaboration between Cee-Lo, Janelle Monae, Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump, Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie, and Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy, debuted this morning, and it presents us with a fantastical world in which Urie is reporting the news, Stump is piloting a fishy helicopter, and Monae is teaching the kids of the world how to be more like her (a fine development, if you ask me). There’s also a sly shout-out to Teletubbies, whose super-saturated landscape is very reminiscent of all the colorful joy ping-ponging around the screen here. Clip after the jump. More »
The Denny’s Rock Star Menu Mach III–the newest iteration of the late-night culinary sorcery (and cheese-saucery) that brought you waitresses in jeans and the Hooburrito–has announced its next round of dishes, which were designed by Rascal Flatts, Gym Class Heroes, Sum 41, and Good Charlotte. There is definitely not a Nannerpuss to be found among the mix of eggs, French toast, meat, cheese, meat, eggs, and cheese that debuts on Denny’s menus across the country next week. However, in a new innovation, this time out there is a vegetarian option, courtesy of GC’s Madden brothers! (Although one wonders about what sort of grease cooks the Boca Burger that makes up the “meat” of their Band Of Burritos.) Grab an antacid and meet me after the jump for the full menu. More »
There are two reasons that I’m glad I kept putting off my treatise on the very unfortunate Bob Dylan vs. will.i.am smackdown in honor of Pepsi: First, MTV News’ James Montgomery pretty much summed up my thoughts on the overall “the present is kinda crappy, let’s just OD on sugar” feel of the ad; and second, I found out that the Coca-Cola-sponsored collaboration between Cee-Lo, Patrick Stump, Janelle Monae, Brendon Urie, Travis McCoy, and Butch Walker had debuted online today. Guess which one is about 50 million times more pleasurable to these ears? I’ll give you a hint: It’s the one without Shrek in its attached video. Embeds of both tracks after the jump.
One of the year’s most pleasurable pop confections came courtesy of a British soul singer who reeled in Americans by appealing to their innate narcissism. I speak, of course, of Estelle’s lighter-than-air, Kanye-assisted ode to Yankees “American Boy,” which first took hold of ears over here in February and slowly made its way into the Stateside pop consciousness over the ensuing months.
The rise of the artist blog as official mouthpiece in 2008 may have been in part because record labels can’t afford to hire decent PR staff anymore, but hey, you take the good with the bad. And there was a lot of good to come out of artists hitting up Tumblr, MySpace, et al; these blogs were really effective at humanizing the vacuum presented by endless paparazzi shots and press releases, whether through “clarity posts,” in which artists put gossips on blast, or posts explaining what life is like when bands graduate to bigger tours, or just posts about how they liked shoes. After the jump, nine examples of why more artists should make a tour stop in Blogtown. Not only is the trip entertaining, its fruits give people like me great material!
Gym Class Heroes’ video for “Guilty As Charged”… More »
